250 and Counting

The siege and battle at Ninety Six managed to end abruptly, largely because the leaders on both sides were convinced that something was about to happen the would benefit the other side. What a gentlemanly way to go out! For all that shooting, hardly anyone was seriously hurt. There was one death on each side, […]

The post The End of the First Siege at Ninety Six–November 22, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

While George Kremer is depicted in today’s artwork as a sophisticated “man of the people”, it’s thought that the artwork was meant to be sarcastic, since Kremer’s colleagues didn’t respect him very much, thinking he was a kind of bumpkin back-bencher. And indeed, George Kremer’s political legacy, at both the state and Congressional level, is […]

The post George Kremer–November 21, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Robert Livingston now enters the picture in the broad tapestry of the American Revolution. Given that the cover art today comes from an image from twenty years after the war; we can assume that he was quite young during the war, plus he held up pretty well in the interim. At any rate, this isn’t […]

The post The 1st Canadian Regiment–November 20, 2025 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The Siege of Ninety-Six is considered to be the first land battle of the Revolution in the South. And believe it or not, we might be talking about this town again in fairly short order. This past Saturday, Governor McMaster officially proclaimed today through Thursday the 250th Anniversary of the battle. And while this battle […]

The post The Siege of Ninety Six–November 19, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

In retrospect, it appears that most of the action in the early days of the Revolution took place in Massachusetts and South Carolina. What was so important about South Carolina? New York wasn’t a big city yet, nor was it strategically important (yet). Baltimore was a small-time port at the time; so was Norfolk. Georgia […]

The post SC Troops Get Organized–November 18, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

A Prize Court is a formal organization dedicated to the disposition of items captured from an enemy. Because the Colonies were more or less building it all from the ground up, much of what they adopted came directly from the British. As a result the Prize Court and its structure is a British institution that […]

The post The Prize Court Committee–November 17, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

It’s a little bit unfair using this portrait to represent Henry Knox, because it was painted many years after his involvement in the Revolution, which began when Knox was 25 years old. As it turns out, this painting is from 1806, the year Knox died. Henry Knox ran a bookstore in Boston as a young […]

The post Mister Knox Goes to Ticonderoga–November 16, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

As noted during the episode, James Carnahan was the president of what was later known as Princeton University, the ninth man to hold that title since the school’s founding nearly 90 years earlier. Carnahan held that position for over 30 years, making him the longest tenured president of that school to that date, a record […]

The post Dr. James Carnahan–November 15, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Lord Dunmore issued his Proclamation just a week earlier, but the response was much stronger than anticipated, probably because—who knew!—people hate being slaves. While the Proclamation only applied to the Virginia colony, because Dunmore had no authority conferred upon him anywhere else, a huge number of slaves and otherwise indentured servants from throughout the thirteen […]

The post The Birth of the Black Loyalists–November 14, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Montgomery had done his thing at Fort St. Jean. Benedict Arnold had finally made it through the Maine (heh.) Now it was time to move in on Montreal. What the Canadians didn’t count on was the possibility that Americans weren’t moving on Quebec, but Montreal. Americans can walk and chew gum at the same time, […]

The post Erm…now what?–November 13, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.